Following up on the last article about the early part of the season, we now dive into the meat of the 2026-27 year for the Penguins. The stretch from December-February could well determine the outlook of the franchise in the short and longer term depending on how the team performs and what the futures could hold for plenty of players as the 2027 NHL trade deadline approaches.
December
After spending the majority of the early months on the road, the worm starts to turn and balance out the schedule with
home games in December. The Pens play at PPG for eight of their 13 contests, with minimal road trips along the way. There’s a start to the month in St. Louis, followed by a trip down to Florida and a post-Christmas game in Carolina and that’s it before starting another road trip at the end of the calendar year.
The home-and-home with Carolina at the end of the month is the highlight of the month, with some more Western conference opponents still around at the beginning. Overall, the situation on paper looks favorable with plenty of non-playoff teams from last year combined with clubs that made it and didn’t do much while there (LA, Ottawa). On the other hand, four total games against Tampa and the Hurricanes will provide plenty of difficulty at the strongest points and other clubs ascending (or attempting to do so) like San Jose, Chicago, New Jersey and Florida will make for good measuring stick games to see where the Pens stack up against teams that should be about be in their range.
December also features the first four day games of the season, all on weekends or holidays.
A key to this month could be stocking up on as many points as possible in the first 10 games of December. Seven of them are at home. In the parity-filled NHL, any result can happen on any given night but that stretch only features one opponent (Buffalo) that won a playoff round last season and provides an opportunity to collect as much as possible being mostly at home and against mid-level competition. The Pens have had some success in recent years against Tampa (8-5-2 since 2021-22), who could be the toughest opponent in the stretch. If they could get something like a 6-2-1 stretch early in this month, the table is set to withstand those next two games against Carolina (a team that Pittsburgh is just 1-3-3 against in the last two seasons).
January
January looks like a tale of two parts for Pittsburgh. The schedule starts off very daunting with the first five games of contending opponents (MIN, EDM, CAR, MTL. COL). The rest of the month features teams that should about be in the same weight class (NYIx2, TOR, WSH, ANA, VAN, DET, NYR, PHI) to truly show how Pittsburgh will stack up against many potential teams running for a playoff spot within their division and conference.
January is the busiest calendar month of the season so far with 14 games to be played. Fortunately, nine are at home and there are limited places to travel to distance-wise and only have two consecutive road games and a manageable two back-to-backs (which, oddly enough, both have the Pens playing the Islanders on the second day).
Overall, for this month the Pens are going to have to survive the grind early against several Cup contenders. They can make up for it in the last four games of the month, all of which could be very critical games considering the opposition (DET, NYI, NYR, PHI).
February
February is a month of extremes for the Pens. Most of the players will a 10-day break early in the month, though some will be tabbed to go to Long Island for the 2027 NHL All-Star game. Many will use the opportunity to go somewhere tropical to soak up the sun and get some R&R.
It’ll be back to reality with the longest road trip of the year to the coldest locales in the NHL when the Pens head out to Western Canada and knock off their appearances in Seattle and Minnesota along the way. At that point, you can say goodbye to the Western Conference, as the last 23 games of the season for the Pens after Feb. 23 are all against Atlantic or Metropolitan Division opponents in the East.
The month will be a contrast in timing with just two games in the first 14 days, followed by seven in the latter-half of the month.
When the calendar turns to March, Pittsburgh will only have 21 games left in their season and completed 75% of the circuit. Overall, the key time might be those very tough five games from Jan 1-12 and how the team handles that and is able to move forward through the rest of the month and heading towards the All-Star break. The season could be at a make/break point through that crucial juncture of the schedule.
